Silverstone: Offers nobody can refuse

As I have stated in this very column in the past year, each week on my globally-heard show on the splendid TuneIn Radio, the feature which is always amusing and unpredictable and irreverent is “Phill & Jill’s Brilliant Wine Sketch.”

Archeologist Jill Weber and her husband, Evan Malone, own REX1516, which specializes in southern inspired cuisine and they also own JET wine bar across from REX on the 1500 block of South Street in Philly. Jill and I record our feature in the lower level of the modestly square-footed space. But size really isn’t relevant unless it measures the circumference of my ego.

Jill digs up treasures for her academic career and for her business career. In the 24 months we’ve co-habited the wine feature, she hasn’t failed to dazzle me with her proclivity for the esoteric, quirky, affordable gems she pours for us to taste and JET to feature each week. I tend to embarrass Jill every week by morphing into Simon Cowell and saying the unkindest things about the labels on the bottles we are about to taste. The nectar in the bottle never fails to impress me, but the atrocious labeling leaves me gobsmacked.

If you haven’t heard our weekly banter, shame on you! And if you have and wonder how we can be so brilliantly clever and witty week after week, I have some amazing news for you. As part of Philly Wine Week, Jill and I will be recording an extended feature in the brand spanking new lower level of her wine bar in front of a live audience (it’s always so much more preferable to a dead one) and space is very limited. It’s taking place on March 27 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Jet, 1525 South Street. It’s well worth the $15 fee. To attend book your place at http://jetwinebar.ticketleap.com/.

Advertisement

Well, I really can’t avoid the obvious, I just have to list the incredible credits of the wine producer whose gorgeous elixir passed my lips last week: American Graffiti, The Godfather (1 through 900), Apocalypse Now, Dracula ... well, you get the big picture. Francis Ford Coppola is one of the truly great film directors of all time, and for the past two dozen years he has been producing some epic wines. The wine which made me an offer I couldn’t refuse (to finish it at one sitting) came from Francis Ford Coppola Winery in Geyserville, Sonoma County. The Director’s Pinot Noir 2012 (suggested retail price: $21) spends 11 months in French oak, 40 percent new and 60 percent 1 and 2-year-old barrels and is 100 percent Pinot from the Russian River Valley. The wine has a sumptuous red berry perfume and is velvety smooth, with the same red berries filling your mouth. It is one of the smoothest, tastiest and most memorable Pinot Noirs I have had for many years. Give the man an Oscar.

Phillip Silverstone’s column appears each week in this newspaper. ˆTime Out With Phillip Silverstone” is heard worldwide anywhere and anytime on Tunein Radio. On their app search: Phillip Silverstone or on the web at http://bit.ly/1kqcRmk. For more information about Phillip: http://www.thesilverstonecollection.com.